"GENEROSITY" Rule #5 of Chivalry
"GENEROSITY" Rule #5 of the Knights Code of Chivalry
"You were born owning nothing and with nothing you will pass out of this life. Be frugal and you can be generous."
This code on generosity reminds us of how fragile we truly are regardless of what materials we gain in life. We start with nothing and in the end, we end with nothing. Therefor we must never worship having "stuff" because it truly never is ours. Everything that we acquire will be here long after we are gone. It's more as if it owns us rather than we own it.
I like to make it known to people that we never really own a car, house or even land. When they get upset and say, "How the #uck do you figure I don't own my house, it's paid off!" I say, "Don't pay the property taxes on it and you will see who truly owns it when the government seizes it and sells it at an auction for 1/10th what you paid for it. Something that we own can't be taken from us by anyone ever. As long as we have to pay someone to keep them from taking what we have, we are renting it."
"Be frugal" is stressed in this code. Some confuse being frugal with being cheap and that is not correct. A cheap person doesn't care about quality, they only care about spending the least amount as possible. A frugal person still cares about quality but will seek the best deal for the quality that he or she is seeking. This section speaks LOUDLY to me today because I am a person who seeks quality but will pay high for it without seeking a cheaper deal. I don't like "ripping" people off or getting more from them than they get from me. I view transactions as an important moment of trade between two people and I want to see my seller just as happy as me or the moment is spoiled. I value the moment and the person that I am dealing with above saving cents or dollars. But as I said, this code has altered my thinking.
The code of generosity points out that one can be generous if he is frugal. This makes sense to me. I have always viewed "hording" money as being greedy or selfish but this code enlightens me. Saving money or seeking the best deal for the high quality that I want, allows me to keep money that I can use in generous ways later. I don't have to "overspend" to be fair. It's ok to find the best deal as long as the quality is the same and the seller is happy to make the sell to me at that price. Today as I write this, the code of Generosity has further freed my mind.
To remember that we were "born with nothing and will end with nothing" liberates us from the greed of being owned by stuff. Some of us waste our live working jobs that we hate to attain or maintain a bunch of things that we don't even fully use. Huge homes with rooms that we never even go in. Numerous cars that we barely drive. Expensive clothes that we wear only once or twice. All of the things that we surrender our time to own end up owning our time and in the end, our life. We rob time from relationships, experiences, and even peaceful moments to serve owning things. Things that will be here without us after we die.
To truly own something while we live we must maintain control of it. This is done by not allowing it to own and control our life. Use it. Don't let it use us. And we have to be sensibly generous with that which we acquire. We must never allow things to be more important than life. We keep things in their place by keeping their value beneath the quality of our life and the lives of others.
And THIS, ...is a "way" of the "Warrior's Edge"! -Jermaine Andre'
